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City to ask homeowners to help pay for police, firefighters with property tax

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Updated: 12:00 AM CST Jan 8, 2016

City to ask homeowners to help pay for police, firefighters with property tax

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Updated: 12:00 AM CST Jan 8, 2016

NEW ORLEANS —

The city of New Orleans will ask voters to approve a property tax increase to help hire more police and pay retired firefighters still waiting for their pension money.'

Thursday the New Orleans City Council passed a measure to place a public safety millage on the April 9 ballot for voter to consider. If passed, the millage has a 12-year sunset period that would begin on Jan. 1, 2017, and continue through Dec. 31, 2028.

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The public safety millage includes 5 mills dedicated for police and 2.5 mills dedicated for fire protection. In November of 2014, voters in Orleans Parish and statewide passed a Constitutional amendment allowing the tax to be placed on the ballot, raising the special millage caps for police and fire protection from 5 to 10 mills.

According to the Census Bureau, median value of owner-occupied housing in Orleans Parish is approximately $183,700. If this millage is approved, an owner of an $183,700 home will pay $138 more in property taxes annually, or approximately $11.50 more per month.

· If passed, the owner of a $150,000 home will pay $113 more annually.

· If passed, the owner of a $200,000 home will pay $150 more annually.

· If passed, the owner of a $250,000 home will pay $188 more annually

· If passed, the owner of a $300,000 home will pay $ 225 more annually.

· If passed, the owner of a $350,000 home will pay $263 more annually.

· If passed, the owner of a $400,000 home will pay $300 more annually.

· If passed, the owner of a $450,000 home will pay $338 more annually.

· If passed, the owner of a $500,000 home will pay $375 more annually.

· If passed, the owner of a $750,000 home will pay $563 more annually.

· If passed, the owner of a $1,000,000 home will pay $750 more annually.

Dwayne Brown lives in Algiers and said the proposed public safety tax will get a no vote from him.

"We pay enough as it is. They say they raising taxes, plus you got water, electric, we're being taxed on all that too so a dollar is really worth a quarter," Brown said.

The tax is expected to generate $17.7 million for the New Orleans Police Department over its 12 year period. It would go toward hiring more officers to help reduce crime and police response times.

"We must hire and train a larger, more professional police force that will give us the tools required to reduce violent crime, reduce response times and provide our residents with the security we all deserve," said Mayor Mitch Landrieu. "These funds are needed to continue to recruit and hire aggressively over the next several years so that we can reach our department goal of 1,600 officers."

The fire department is expected to earn $8.9 million as part of a settlement agreement between the city and the New Orleans Firefighters Union on the decades-long firefighters back pay and pension lawsuit.

"We also must honor our commitment to our firefighters. These people put their lives on the line to save others, and we must honor the commitment that our city made," Landrieu said.

"This is a public service issue," said Union President Nick Felton. "This is not just about fire fighters this is about public safety, this is about better fire protection, this is about better police protection and a better New Orleans."

Felton said the police and fire departments account for a majority of the city's budget, and if the tax isn't approved by voters it could mean layoffs and cuts to vital services.

Brown said, "They just taxing us and finding more ways to tax us. just use our dollars the right way."

"Listen I get it," Felton said, "People don't want to pay excessive amounts of taxes that number 1 don't go to where they think it's going and number two are unnecessary."

Felton said this tax will not allow for any back door provisions. "We made sure to nail the backdoor shut, so they couldn't put money in and then take money out, so this will all be new money's that stays in the perspective departments," Felton said.

Proposed Ballot Language for Public Safety Millage:

"Shall the New Orleans City Council be authorized to annually levy an increase in ad valorem taxes of a total of seven and one-half (7.5) mills as follows: (1) dedicated solely for recruiting, hiring, equipping and paying police officers for increased police protection, in the amount of and not exceeding five (5) mills on the dollar of assessed real property valuation throughout the city and (2) dedicated solely for fire protection in the amount of and not exceeding two and one-half (2.5) mills on the dollar of assessed real property valuation throughout the city, for twelve (12) years, beginning January 1, 2017 and ending December 31, 2028, (an estimated $17.7 million reasonably expected to be collected at this time for an entire year as a result of the 5 mills increase for police protection and an estimated $8.9 million reasonably expected to be collected at this time for an entire year as a result of the 2.5 mills increase for fire protection), in accordance with Article VI, Section 26(E) of the Louisiana Constitution?"